Atheists question spirituality award at National Academy of Sciences


The award of a prize celebrating spiritual scientists at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences headquarters this week has irritated some atheist science-bloggers .

The 2010 Templeton Prize Laureate will be announced Thursday at the NAS headquarters in Washington D.C. at 11 a.m. ET. The $1.5 million prize is given by the John Templeton Foundation. The Philadelphia-based organization funds, "discovery in areas engaging life's biggest questions," and awards its prize to scientists involved with religious or spiritual thought in some fashion.

The award "each year honors a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical work," the foundation says.

"The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has brought ignominy on itself by agreeing to host the announcement," wrote well-known scientist and author Richard Dawkins, on his blog Wednesday. "This is exactly the kind of thing Templeton is ceaselessly angling for -- recognition among real scientists -- and they use their money shamelessly to satisfy their doomed craving for scientific respectability."

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<---- Likes to emulsify.


You know, I hate to come across as anti-spiritual... (Amongst materialists and rationalists, I'm actually somewhat 'pro-spiritual'.)

But there is something about this which pisses me off. Dawkins is right... the fans of woo like to name drop and throw around credentials like they mean more than they do and draw senseless connections which *sound* like they are giving credibility, and their audience doesn't ask 'what does it really mean', and simply hosting this at NAS means there is going to be an advertisement somewhere for some BS woo woo product or belief system which says "As recognized by the NAS".... blech.